We are the psychos in first class. People see me and my older son and wonder how we could afford tickets. They probably decide I’m the crazy wife whose husband is never home because he extends every business trip to include a mistress tryst and sends me his love via miles for upgrades. Read more
I coach so many women who say they want career advice, but what they really want is permission to not work. These women can see that the jobs they always dreamed of having are not compatible with raising kids, ant that makes the work world feel very disappointing. Read more
If you want to make a change in your life you need to change something in your routine. Gretchen Rubin writes a lot about this in her book about habits, which I read to figure out how to stop eating when I’m anxious. Read more
This course includes three days of video sessions and email-based course materials and a 20-minute one-on-one coaching session with Penelope. You can purchase this course for anytime, on-demand access.
The first job I got at a startup blew my mind. I was learning so incredibly fast, and there was no limit to what my job could include. Anything I could teach myself how to do, I could add to my job. Read more
Melissa broke up with her boyfriend. Thank god, because I never liked him. I have never liked any of her boyfriends, and the most unlikable of her boyfriends would say I’m overbearing and jealous. I would say I just have a good eye for men. Read more
The only resolutions that work are lifestyle changes, and if you are really ready to do a lifestyle change, you don’t wait for January 1. Which is one of the gazillion reasons why most New Years’ resolutions don’t stick. Read more
I couldn’t handle the amount of people who were asking me to coach them. Even though I coach over the phone, and often in my pajamas, it takes a lot of energy and I can’t do more than two calls a day. It’s not like there aren’t other demands on my time and energy: I homeschool my kids, I have a VC-backed startup, and I am supposedly paying heed to the most obvious marriage advice in the world that says to make your spouse a priority. Read more
Negotiating is not a work skill—it’s a life skill. File it in the have-good-social-skills category, not with make-more-money.
People with good social skills do much better in the world than people with high IQs by all measures except for winning the Nobel prize for economics. So then it should make sense to you that you should think about negotiating tactics all the time. Read more
We were playing Cards Against Humanity, which, by the way, is a great way to educate kids about everything important, and we have a rule that if you don’t know what a card means you can trade it in, but you have to ask what it means.
So my son says, “What’s a desk job?” Read more
The ISFJ course is here! It includes three days of videos and supplementary reading materials and a 20-minute one-on-one coaching session with Penelope . You can purchase this course for anytime, on-demand access. The cost is $195.
The only ISFJ I’ve ever been close to is an ex volleyball partner who was so hot that I could have just gone to bed with her and never gotten out. Ever.
And then she became anorexic and looked even hotter, and I felt so guilty thinking that.
I gave up so many chances to play with great partners because I just wanted to spend all day on the court next to her.
But this is not a good opener for a post that is supposedly targeting ISFJs. Here is a better opener:
My brother kept dating for a long time. He kept saying he was looking for a woman who is beautiful and brilliant and kind and fun. And I was like, shut up. You’re not even all those things. I mean, I can’t even remember the last time this brother was fun. The most fun thing he does is laugh at my jokes. Read more